Monday, November 03, 2008

The Beatles will put out a video game that allows players to play along with the band's music a la Rock Band, but it won't be a part of that game or Guitar Hero, according to many stories in the press over the weekend.

Apple Corps chief executive Jeff Jones would say that the game will encompass the band's entire career and that the tracks used in the game will be based on the British releases of their albums. Separately, Jones said Apple Corps is still in negotiations to release The Beatles' catalog for digital download, but no date has been set.

Giles Martin, who handled music production of The Beatles' "Love" project with his father George Martin, said that idea will be central to the game. "We are trying to keep to, as much as possible, people playing the songs as though they're playing the originals," Martin said. "It's more of a way for them to interact with what they know very well as opposed to us remixing."

Developers weren't releasing details of the game, which is still in development and won't be available until the holiday season next year. So it's still unclear whether players get to become virtual John Lennon and perform their favorite songs next to virtual Paul McCartney, backed by virtual George Harrison and virtual Ringo Starr.